Robin Ross isn’t quite as colourful as Cherokee Parks, the California cool, multi-tattooed NBA centre who played two seasons for the Vancouver Grizzlies and maintained a slim connection to native American lineage.

But can Parks trace his roots back to the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

Ross, the 62-year-old defensive line coach of the B.C. Lions, can.

That was the year his “great-great-great grandfather” John Ross, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, presided over the forced removal of his people from their ancestral lands in the U.S. southeast.

The tragic “Trail of Tears,” and the subsequent rebuilding of the nation in Indian Territory before it became present-day Oklahoma, is integral to Ross’ heritage. His father, Atha, now 99 years old, was educated at a residential school, built on the assumption that aboriginal children should be indoctrinated in the dominant culture of Euro-American society.

“The purpose of that school was to eliminate Indian culture and teach him white culture,” says Ross, who carries a native roll card (i.e. a census card) that determines his tribal membership.

With the Cleveland Indians returning to the World Series for the first time in 19 years, in search of their first championship since 1948, opposition to the name and logo of Cleveland’s baseball team is inviting planned protests this week. Many see the appropriation of native mascots, symbols and names as unpalatable and insensitive as the cigar-store Indian chief.

That the name “Indians” is offensive to all native Americans is easy for non-natives to presume. But camps are divided on one of sport’s thorniest word issues.

“I know there are some in the Indian culture who consider it disrespectful,” Ross says. “But I come from the other side of the argument. I don’t see it as being derogatory. If you take those names away, there’ll be no remembrance. It’s a pride thing. That was the whole purpose in the beginning, to eliminate anything Indian and impose another culture.”

B.C. Lions defensive line coach Robin Ross has been coaching for 40 years, with stops in the CFL, NFL and university ranks.Gerry Kahrmann /
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A former head coach at Western Washington University, Ross said he used to invite native kids from the nearby Lummi Nation to watch spring practice and encourage their football dreams. Jim Sandusky, an ex-Lions’ receiver who played 69 career games with the CFL team, is the athletic director and head football coach of the Lummi Nation Blackhawks.

“They are decked out. They have their Indian wardrobe and stuff,” Ross says. “It’s awesome. They have a lot of fun with it. They’re not playing it down at all.”

The Lions’ remaining hire from the short-lived Jeff Tedford regime, Ross maintains a home in Sudden Valley, Wash., on the shores of Lake Whatcom, close to Bellingham. Growing up in southern California, he has called the U.S. Northwest home since 1994, when he was defensive coordinator with the Western Washington Vikings.

In counting off a 40-year coaching career that began at Long Beach State, Ross uses up nine fingers. He has made that many stops at NCAA Division I schools, not counting two seasons as the linebackers coach with the Oakland Raiders, when the NFL team reached the 2000 AFC championship game before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.

In 2006, the year he turned 52, Ross was named head coach for the first time, returning to Western Washington, a Division II school. He was there at the end, three seasons later, when budgetary cuts and the recession doomed the Vikings football program. It had been around since 1903.

“It felt like we had a shot at a national championship. Then the program gets dropped,” Ross said. “That was one of my greatest disappointments.”

Though they didn’t know each other as high-schoolers, Ross and Tedford grew up only miles apart in southern California. They were on staffs together twice as NCAA coaches and had the commonality of sharing the same head coach as collegians. The late Jim Sweeney coached Ross at Washington State and was Tedford’s mentor later at Fresno State.

“We still text each other back and forth. But our wives probably talk more than we do,” Ross says of Tedford, who resigned from the Lions after a 7-11 season last year to pursue college coaching opportunities in the U.S. The former California head coach currently serves as an offensive consultant for the 7-0 Washington Huskies, though Tedford maintains a residence in Langley.

Outside of shopping and vacation excursions to Vancouver and British Columbia, Ross didn’t make it to Canada on a professional basis until Tedford hired him last year. But he’s had a number of previous brushes with employment to the north.

The Lions tried to recruit him in 1976, after Ross, an offensive lineman, was cut by the Seattle Seahawks, an NFL expansion team that year. Then, Bud Riley, coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, attempted to lure him north a year later, but Ross wanted to finish his degree at WSU first and get into coaching.

“It felt like we had a shot a national championship. Then the program gets dropped. That was one of my greatest disappointments.”

In the 1990s, Ross coached against Simon Fraser University, when the Clan was an NAIA football rival to Western Washington. A decade later, he was interviewed for the head coaching job with the UBC Thunderbirds and then considered for a position on Mike Benevides’ staff when Wally Buono stepped down as Lions’ head coach following the 2011 season.

That was the Lions’ last Grey Cup year. Ross has a shot at his first in 2016.

“The Canadian game is so much more familiar the second time around,” he says. “Football is always a growing process, even when you’ve spent 40 years in coaching. I know our players’ strengths and weaknesses better. With Jonathon (Jennings) maturing and the quarterback situation stabilizing, we’ve been so much better. The goal now is to try and win the Grey Cup.”

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